23rd Annual Academy Awards ~ Overview

The 23rd Annual Academy Awards were held at the RKO Pantages Theatre on March 29, 1951 with host, Fred Astaire. If we were to take a look at all the nominations that year an average movie goer would probably pick the winners such as; William Holden, Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Gloria Swanson, Billy Wilder and they would be…WRONG!

If the 1950’s was anything, it would be the year of the upset. It was also the first year that due to an unusual set of regulations by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1950, the Academy began contractually obligating Oscar winners to retain personal possession of their awards. Pre-1950 Oscars are the only Academy Awards that are legitimately available on the open market. 1950 was a rare year indeed.

All About Eve, (one of my favorite films) was the recipient of a record breaking 14 nominations. It was the first film to be nominated that many times and held that record for 47 years until James Cameron’s Titanic tied the record in 1997.

Not only were there upsets in 1950, there were also a lot of overlooked such as;

• Marlon Brando as paraplegic WWII veteran Lt. ‘Bud’ Ken Wilozek in Fred Zinnemann’s The Men
  
• Gregory Peck as mustached, aging gunslinger Jimmy Ringo in Henry King’s The Gunfighter
  
• Clifton Webb (with three previous career nominations in 1944, 1946, and 1948 – all of which lost) as the stern but loving patriarch in Cheaper By The Dozen
• Alec Guinness as eight different murder victims in Kind Hearts and Coronets
  
• Joseph Cotten as pulp writer Holly Martins in The Third Man
• Sterling Hayden as small-town jewel crook Dix Handley in The Asphalt Jungle
• James Stewart as vengeful Lin McAdam in Winchester ‘73

1950 also saw for the first and only time an apperance made by Marilyn Monroe as she presented an award that year. 1950 was good year for Hollywood, but not so much a good year for the big names. We will take a closer look at the winners and losers of the 23rd Annual Academy Awards.